


Water and Fire

by geroine



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternative Universe - Future Fantasy, Ereri Secret Santa 2015, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-09 04:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5525495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geroine/pseuds/geroine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren was scared and running from everything he knew.  When he can't run anymore, he finds solace in someone he didn't even know he needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> a ereri secret santa 2015 present for [cottonballs-n-tissuerolls](http://cottonballs-n-tissuerolls.tumblr.com)
> 
> (i am sorry this isn't more christmas-ey but i couldn't really figure out how to include it in with the prompts i wanted to work on. merry christmas!)

The smell is what Eren noticed first.  The land around him hadn't changed, but the air had.  He wasn't sure what was different, just that it wasn't the same as it had been for the past few days.  It put him on edge, the change.

Though if he were being honest, he had been on edge for almost every single minute since…he tried not to think about it.  Everything was still so confusing to him.  He needed some more time to get used to...whatever this was.

He raised his head from looking down at the ground to the horizon ahead of him.  A flash of light in the distance had caught his eye.  Warily he peered in the direction of the light, eyes narrowing in suspicion.  He knew the chances of it being more people were slim, but then again, what did he know?  Until a few days ago, his life had been normal.

He continued on, the light still flickering ahead of him.  If he looked at it, it was almost blinding, a path of light leading to the sun.  It was odd, he’d never seen such a thing before.  And the land ahead looked weird.  Flatter than anything he’d seen before, and…blue?

Suddenly memories of happier times filled his head.

_“Look, Eren! This book says that the majority of our world is covered by water, and they call it the ocean!”_

_Armin was holding an old book out to him, eyes bright with excitement._

_“Do you know why the sky is blue? It says here that it’s because the ocean is blue, and they’re reflecting off of each other. And it’s all salt water! So salty that you’d die if you drink too much of it! I wonder if it tastes the same…Mom would kill me if I wasted her table salt though...”_

He blinked and shook his head. That had to be what was in front of him now. Just as Armin’s book described, big and blue and stretching on endlessly. It was beautiful.

The ocean.

He was nearly at the edge of the water now, and it truly was a beautiful sight to see, the breeze fresh and crisp across his face.

His heart sunk as tears filled his eyes. He didn’t realize he could still cry.   But he was crying, because it was wrong, all wrong. There was no Armin by his side, eyes alight with excitement. No Mikasa, ever so cautious but still allowing a shy smile directed towards him and Armin. Here he was, exploring the outside world, just as he had always dreamed.

But fulfilling a dream is not always what you do, but who you do it with.

Eren was alone. And as far as he could tell, he would stay alone for the rest of his unnatural life.

He could feel his control lessening the more upset he got. Before he could bring his thoughts under control he was past the tipping point and every panicked moment, every terrifying thought, every confusing memory from the past few days burst forth in his mind. Eren let himself go, hurling himself towards the water as he let out an angry, grief-stricken howl.

* * *

Levi should be happier about this assignment. He had basically been handed a leave of absence from the Survey Corps for an indefinite amount of time. As an added bonus, spending time with his family and his kin was part of this job.  When he wasn't fulfilling his assignment, he would be free to follow his nature as he wished, freer than he’d been in years. He should be happy, but it was still a job, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to let himself relax completely until it was finished.

The fact that he was still working was reinforced by the fact that he had promised Erwin he would report with a scout once a week. If was only for a few minutes at most, but it was enough to pull him from thoughts of Farlan and Isabel waiting for him, promises of home and comfort.  He had a job to do. His Survey Corps cloak was draped haphazardly across his shoulders and he still had ocean water dripping off his body as he approached the scout waiting at the shoreline.

“Hey Levi.”

It was Mike, who was politely averting his eyes to the setting sun, rather than a dripping wet, mostly naked Levi.

“Mike.” Levi inclined his head to the taller scout.

“Any luck?”

Levi sighed.

“No. I’ve been asking my contacts, but so far it’s been quiet.”

“I see.”

“Sorry that you had to come out for nothing. Tell Erwin I will check in same time, same place next week?”

“All right.”

With a huff, Levi turned and walked back to his makeshift shelter and tucked his cloak in with his belongings, securing his gear and supplies one more time before turning to the ocean.

He'd been about to tell Mike off for not giving him more privacy, but each step he took towards the water made his body shiver in anticipation.  His instincts were responding to a bone-deep call and soon it was all he could do to keep control.  Pale blue eyes glowed silver as his skin made contact with the water, and the further Levi went into the surf, the wobblier his control of his body felt.  When he was waist-deep he finally welcomed the _coolness_ , like a flow of ice rushing over his skin and into his veins.  As it should be.  He took a deep breath, interrupted by the slits splitting down his neck, and raised his arms to dive into the base of a cresting wave.

He did not surface, and with the sun now completely set, Mike mounted his horse and rode towards headquarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will be up shortly, thank you for your patience


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have some [news](http://gerogerogeroine.tumblr.com/post/141933318162/some-good-newsmore-i-do-not-have-a-brain) for those who are interested
> 
> i must apologize profusely to [cottonballs-n-tissuerolls](http://cottonballs-n-tissuerolls.tumblr.com) for my excessive delay in getting this posted. i really am very very sorry that this took three months to finish, please forgive me! i have made it a bit longer than originally planned as an apology for it taking me so long to get my act together. thank you for your patience!

The click of polished boots echoed through the bare hallway.  The soldier that belonged to those boots was young, and her full military uniform was complimented by a well made leather jacket, the emblem of a pair of wings embroidered on the back being the jacket's most prominent feature.  The soldier stopped at a heavy door and knocked respectfully.

"Enter." A gruff male voice called through the door.

The soldier entered the large office and saluted.  The Commander-in-Chief of the three combined military forces was seated at his desk, glasses on as he reviewed a report despite the late, or rather early, hour.

"Commander Zackly, pardon the interruption."

"What is it?"  Zackly asked without raising his eyes from the report.

"Commander Smith sent me to report a lead on the Shiganshina incident."

Zackly lowered the report to give the soldier his full attention.

"Go on."

"The long distance reconnaissance team spotted an...anomaly heading west by south three days ago."

"Three days ago?  Why wasn't this brought to my attention sooner?"  Zackly barked at the soldier.

Flinching away from the commander's stern tone, the soldier replied, "Commander Smith led the expedition personally, and they left before the incident occurred.  They returned to headquarters late last night, and Commander Smith reported the sighting as soon as he read the report."

Zackly slumped back in his chair, and the soldier relaxed from her defensive posture.

"Tell Smith he is to personally take a team of his best men to investigate as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir!"  The soldier saluted the Commander before excusing herself from the office.

* * *

“I want to go on record that I think this is a terrible idea.”  Armin stated morosely.  

Mikasa didn’t answer, but she did finally turn her head away from the heavily guarded Survey Corps gate to face him.

“This plan requires us sneaking onto the base unnoticed.  Sneaking into the stables unnoticed.  Figuring out how to prepare the horses unnoticed, and then there’s the fact that neither of us know how to ride hoses, so add figuring out how to ride the horses unnoticed.  Then if we somehow manage to make it off-base unnoticed, we have to hope they don’t notice before we get a far enough head start so they don’t catch up to us if they try to pursue us."

Mikasa turned back to look at the gate.  Soldiers were walking in and out of the gate freely, bustling about various tasks.  Armin ran the heels of his palms down his face.

“This is such a terrible idea.”  He whined.

“Armin this is _your_ idea.”  Mikasa said in an impassive flat tone that only Eren and Armin would know that she was losing her patience.

“I know!”  Armin whined more loudly than before, hands still over the lower half of his face.

Mikasa was watching him from the corner of her eye.  After a minute she asked,  “Do you have any better ideas?"

There was a very long pause.  

“No."

Mikasa snapped to action, walking away from the gate, dragging Armin along with her. 

“Then let’s get to work.”  She said.

* * *

Erwin tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair, stretching his long limbs before letting himself go slack.  He'd just sent Nanaba off to put out the biggest fire that had been left sitting on his desk while they'd been gone, but he took one look at the remaining stack of official documents on his desk and almost wished that he was back on his horse.

Wearily he pulled the top report from the file and scanned the contents.  The majority of the pile was regarding the Shiganshina incident.  The more details he read over, the more he was glad that he didn't have Dot's job.  The Stationary Guard was in shambles, rescue and emergency repair operations still underway.  He read over a request for him to loan some of his men to help support efforts, and he made a mental short list of squad leaders he could trust to cooperate, glad that Levi’s absence meant one less person’s complaints to listen to when he gave the order to assist the garrison troops.

He continued to work through the pile, reading conflicting reports on Shiganshina until his head hurt.  The only solid thing that he could make out was that several never-before-seen shifters revealed themselves for unknown reasons.  The collateral damage was incredible, Erwin would have thought that they were exaggerating, except that the damage estimates, the death toll, the requests for aid, the more recent the reports the larger the requests for aid became.  The incident had been over for almost six days and Shiganshina was in shambles.  

It was bizarre.  In theory the military branches existed to protect the people from Shifter threats, among their other duites, but rarely did they have to deploy for such a purpose.  Shifters usually stayed hidden and kept to themselves.

He was just reviewing a report of the eyewitness accounts of the shifters and thinking that it was a good thing he had sent Levi off on his special assignment when a sharp knock interrupted him.  

“Enter!” He called through the door.

Hanji stepped through the door speaking almost too quickly for him to understand.

“Wow you look dead on your feet and I know you’ve barely gotten back but we caught some civilians trespassing on base.”

“Nice to see you too.”  Erwin muttered grumpily.

“Can I keep them?”  Hanji asked eagerly.

“The tresspassers?”  

“Yeah!”

Erwin exhaled slowly, wishing he could put his head on his desk and sleep.  “No.  Couldn’t you have resolved this without involving me?  Just make sure they are escorted to the gate."

“But we already did!  Twice!”  

“The same people broke into our base three times?”  Erwin leveled Hanji with an unimpressed look.

"Not people, Erwin, kids.  The same kids.  And this time they almost made off with some of our supplies and horses."

"So detain them and keep them in the dungeon.  I dont have time to deal out punishments to children right now.”  Erwin picked up a report with one hand and made a dismissive gesture to Hanji with the other.  

“Fine.”  Hanji pouted as they walked out and closed his office door behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will be up shortly (for real this time!)

**Author's Note:**

> next chapter will be up shortly, thank you for your patience


End file.
